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Internet Marketing – Is It Necessary?

Internet Marketing or Online Marketing depends a great deal on the methods and strategies adopted by businesses to advertise, promote and market products and services.

There is no doubt that the Internet has completely changed the way data is shared; this single factor has profoundly altered the impact of online marketing vs. traditional marketing. The shift towards inbound techniques has made earlier tactics become antiquated. The new tactics have brought in tremendous benefits like audience growth and branding.

No business entity will start an enterprise without a business plan. The Business Plan details ways and means of marketing and the strategies that are evolved to minimize expenditure and maximise returns. However, just thriftiness in spending marketing dollars is not strategic planning; at least, as far as Internet presence of the business is concerned. Many organizations are only now understanding that a well designed website is not enough to market or sell products; there are several strategies around internet marketing that help optimize business prospects, targets, revenues and so on. Companies in general face similar problems in spite of web presence on the Internet; these problems could be:

• Minimum sales and ineffective lead tracking

• Very little web traffic to website

• Paid traffic leads not leading to conversion of sales

• Online newsletter subscriptions are less to none

• Not many requests for products and services

These common problems can be resolved by internet marketing ways that position the company’s products and services in a niche market and help increase conversion to sales by effectively following the basics of sales processes. The processes are a bit complex but nevertheless vital to the success of a business on the Internet.

In so far as a small business is concerned, there are essentially five prime areas of internet marketing that are of specific interest, in some way or the other. These areas can all be engaged together or choices made after analyzing which method suits the business the most.

• Search Engine Marketing – visibility in search engines helps small businesses perform along with larger ones in the competitive space. Most people use search engines to locate products and services and linking the business with specific search results for keywords relating to products and services is vital.

• Email Marketing – list of names with personal email ids is very crucial to building prospective customer lists especially if those people have opted in or signed up to receive notifications about products and services.

• Content Marketing – Informing existing customers and potential ones about product updates, new product releases etc. Earlier this was done by brochures, leaflets etc that were distributed either directly or through sources to customer bases but now online content in the form of articles and blogs on a business’ website has a wider reach.

• Social Media Marketing – integrating social media with a business is a new element that needs to be mastered. Social Media may not suit every type of business but its impact cannot be questioned; this is an excellent way of interacting and networking with a vast swathe of the population, many of whom may end becoming customers. Strengthening customer base is one of the most important advantages resulting in repeat sales.